Beneath the Glamour: The 1920’s
The era that started it all: the clash of cultures that still exists in America today
Introduction
The 1920’s was a time of dynamic change for the American people, after WWI, and the boys came home there was a overhanging grief of what society was coming to. It was a common belief that society would continue to progress forward but WWI changed that forever. In order to escape the horror of the past there was jazz music, beers, dancing, and entertainment which lead to relaxed social norms and a culture focused on materialism. There were those who supported this lifestyle but there were others who did not and this lead to a conflict of values in America which has never been resolved.
Aftermath of WWI
As stated in the introduction, WWI caused a movement by youth and the nation to move away from issues and attempt to escape from the horror of the war. In the domestic sphere, there was a change towards a return to the "good old days" and less focus on reform. In regards to foriegn relations there was a belief of focusing inwards not outwards. Progressvism was offically over.
People
Woodrow Wilson
Terms
Escapeism
Isolationism
'Lost Generation"
Events
WWI
Social Changes
the 1920’s, the urban environment of the
city brought new changes to American society in
regards to values. However there was a major backlash against these new changes and there was an
attempt to turn back the clock by some groups to the
good old days.
Differences between the Old and New
Old Culture
Emphasized Production
Character
Scarcity
Religion
Idealized the Past
Local Culture
Substance
New Culture
Emphasized Consumption
Personality
Abundance
Science
Looked to the Future
Mass Culture
Image
Both sides through legislation, trials, and culture tried to win over the American public. Provided below is a main list of people, events, and terms needed to know to understand this cultural conflict. Main point of understanding was that the old culture was a reactionary movement to the excesses of the new culture with the revival of the KKK, religious fundamentalism, new role of women in society, Prohibition, and the reaction against immigrants like in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Movie on Prohibition
People
KKK
Marcus Gravy
Al Capone
“Lost Generation”
Frank Lloyd Wright
F. Scott Fitzgerald
William Bryan Jennings
Clarence Darrow
Charles Lindbergh
WCTU
UNIA
Sinclair Lewis
Terms
Flappers
Sex of Clock
Speakeasies
“Jazz Age”
Fundamentalist
Consumer culture
xenophobia
Events
Harlem Renaissance
Scopes Monkey Trial
Prohibition
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
“The Great Migration”
Foriegn Policy
After WWI, there was a great concern for Americans that America may be again involved in some far off war. As a result, the League of Nations never was joined by the US and it failed in the end. Isolationism became the general foreign policy, except in Latin America where American investment almost doubled and relations improved in that region. In Nicaragua a revolution erupted and the Marines were sent in 1925 with the Somoza family were placed in charge. Though America remained out of foreign conflict it initiated a treaty to stop all further wars and limited naval ships. There was much optimism and faith in the future and the agreements/conferences America initiated were reflective of that.
People
Charles G. Dawes
Charles Evan Hughes
Terms
Reparations
Open Door
Events
21 Demands
Dawes Plan
London Naval Conference
Washington Disarment Conference
Five Power Treaty
Nine Power Treaty
Four Power Pact
Kellog-Briand Pact
Roger Act of 1924
Locarno Pact
Politics
During the 1920’s, there was an attempt to revert back to the “good old days” in the political as well social sphere. Americans had grown weary of two decades of reform and attempts to pass moral legislation. Instead of reform there was search for prosperity in politics, and with that in mind three Republicans were elected. As seen in the Glided Age, there was a close relationship between the federal government and big business. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, believed that that business needed support and benefits, which can be seen below;
Four Major Ways Federal Government Supported Business
1. High Tariff Policies- The Fordney-McCumber Act (1922) and the Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) created the highest-ever schedule of tariffs for foreign-made goods.
2. Andrew Mellon- Secretary of the Treasury. In response to his demands, Congress repealed the excess profits tax and reduced the rates for corporate and personal income taxes. Mellon provided business leaders with a list of tax loopholes.
3. Cutbacks in Federal Trade Commission- The federal government had created the FTC to regulate big business and to look into unfair trade practices, but the commission did less and less of this in the 1920s.
4. Herbert Hoover- As Secretary of Commerce and as President, Hoover encouraged price-fixing and believed that the government was responsible for helping businesses profit.
(Specific facts came from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture15.html)
Calvin Coolidge “Fishing” http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/photos/html/1106.html
Copyright 1997 Wisconsin Historical Society
Along with there being a focus on big business in politics there was an urgency to “return to normalcy” as said by Harding and there was an attempt through legislation to turn back the clock.
What does normalcy mean?
1. Fewer foreigners-immigration restrictions
2. No radical ideologies-attack on communism
3. Return to American Values-prohibition
4. Free of labor and racial strife-less support of unions and civil rights.
5. Less government interference-there was less interference.
People
Warren G. Harding
Charles Evan Hughes
Herbert Hoover
Albert B. Fall
Calvin Coolidge
Alfred E. Smith
Robert LaFollette
A. Mitchell Palmer
Andrew Mellon
1924, Cartoon depicting the power “big business’
has over consumers and producers due to
government
Terms
“Return to normalcy”
Events
18th Amendment
Volstead Act
Emergency Quota Act
National Origins Act of 1924
Teapot Dome Scandal
19th amendment
Federal Farm Board
Red Scare
Popular Culture
The 1920’s popular culture grew out of the rapid developments in technology and also the social changes that were occurring. Movies, music, and the radio helped Americans escape from depression after WWI In addition, it was the first time there was a focus on youth instead of older generations. With new technology and social changes, popular culture really took off with silly fads, cool music, short skirts, fast cars, celebrities, sports heroes, the Charleston, Walt Disney, and of course Felix the cat! One must remember however, that these values promoted in popular culture were not accepted by all of American society. The 1920’s showed really two sides competing for cultural dominance, and based off what came apart of popular culture who do you think won?
Fashion
The 1920’s was perhaps the most memorable for the flapper look of short hair, lots of makeup (in those days) short dresses, big beads, little hats, and boas. As Mr. Randolph said in class, “the higher the hem, the better the economy,” and as seen through the 1920’s the dresses started long and then shortened. The flapper dress was reflective of a women’s freedom and of women’s changing role in society. There were also other changes in fashion as well; formal dresses became low-cut and backless along with the entrance of Coco Chanel onto the fashion scene.
Men also had their own sense of style during the 1920’s; men often emulated their sports heroes by coping their style. Fashions of coats, such as the raccoon coat and camel hair polo coat came in style from the Red Grange and the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, World famous aviator Charles Lindbergh inspired a craze of leather driving jackets as well. Majority of men’s wardrobe became more youthful collegiate in appearance.
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/men.html
Sports
Sports, gained popularity in the 1920’s with the formation of teams for youth in high school and college. Tennis and golf became open to the middle class for the first time ever. Football and baseball remained the two main sports with such sports heroes as Babe Ruth and the Red Grange.
Cartoons
The 1920’s saw the invasion of animated shorts hit the big screen. Felix the Cat, (picture on right) was one of the first animated characters to capture the attention of the American public. These cartoons were mostly silent until Steamboat Willy, the first cartoon with sound and the first to feature Mickey Mouse and Co.
Walt Disney was also the first to franchise goods based off a cartoon character.
Bonus Fact: The story of Felix the Cat was parodied on The Simpsons
Fads
The 1920’s was truly infected with the disease of fads. Dance marathons, contests of all kinds caught the imagination of the American public. Here was the start of the Miss America Contest, in 1920 at the New Jersey shore.
There were many other ridiculous competitions and contests such as what this man is doing.
Flagpole sitting, as shown here was another major fad that rocked the nation.
Complete List of Fads from the 1920’s//
Radio Shows
Peter Pan Peanut Butter
Bright Red Lipstick
Dance Marathons
Flagpole Sitting
Pez
Conk Hairdo
Cloche Hat
Mahjongg
Freudianism
Swing Dancing
Music and Dance
1920’s was known as the “Jazz Age” for a reason!
Jazz music grew in immense popularity in the country from the “Great Immigration” of African Americans from the South the cities of the North.
However, as the flapper was criticized so were the dances and the music of youth? It was often called
the “Devil’s Music” or garbage.
Famous Musicians and Singers
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Joseph “King Oliver” Oliver
Bessie Smith
Benny Goodman
Ma Rainey
Dances of the 1920’s
Charleston
Cake Walk
Turkey Trot
Black Bottom
Bunny Hug
Movies
1920’s was really the start of the movie industry, a majority of the films made were silent but advancements were made with the The Jazz Singer, was the first film with sound. With Americans flocking to the cinema, actors became better know and started the fascination with celebrities that continues today. However, there were negative aspects of film with the Birth of A Nation proving how film as a medium can be used as a form of propaganda.
Major Movie Stars
Al Jolsen
Charlie Chaplin
Lon Chaney, Sr
Rudolph Valentino
Clara Bow
Douglass Fairbanks
Mary Pickford
Greta Garbo
Norma Shearer
Joan Crawford
Major Movies
The Jazz Singer
Birth of a Nation
The Kid
Ben Hur
The Phantom of the Opera
The Mask of Zorro
Robin Hood
Taming of the Shrew
Legacy of the 1920’s
1920’s most famously had a direct impact upon 1930’s with the Stock Crash of 1929, causing “The Great Depression” which would take till WWII to be officially rid of. The 1920’s left us more than that; it started a clash of cultures that is truly present in our society. Look in our society and you will have a clash of red and blue states; red and blue states have a certain conations. Red state people are country bumpkins who shop at Wal-Mart while Blue state people cannot live with their Starbucks. The more things change the more they stay the same, for it was the same conflict that was started in the 1920’s that continues today in a different form.
Critical Questions
What were the main conflcits in the 1920's?
Why was there a desire to retain American Values?
What effect did Prohibition have on Culture?
How did a women's role change in the 1920's?
What was the orginal name of Mickey Mouse? (Mortimor)
All pictures, unless noted, are from, 1920’s: Sports, Professionalism, and Young Plan. SONG-Return to Normalcy?
Roaring Twenties Watch out
Herbert Hoover’s lost his clout
Prohibition, Speak Easy,
Charleston, lemon squeezie
Gangsters, Al Capone
Bugs Moran, watch your own
League of Nations, shut down
Shoeless Joe, What a clown
Anarchists, everywhere,
Vanzetti and the Red Scare
Women’s Rights- Suffrage Passed
Lindberg I’m aghast
Race riots, Tulsa
Communist Party of China
Steamboat Willie shout out
Too many dead in Gansu!
20’s were a crazy decade
The world’s gone mad,
What’s this music?
Consumerism runs rampant
Harding you lied to us
You said it’d be normal
Harlem renaissance, Jazz age
Tolstoy writes a page
Kellog-Brian Pact is signed
Mussolini is here
Evolution, what is that
John Scopes, you’re a brat
King Tut, Babe Ruth
Black Sox Tell the Truth
KKK is popular
Make way for the skyscraper
Blue Sky’s are everywhere
Telephone, Hello There
Stock Brokers rule the nation
Children get an Education
Two plus two is four
Men coming home from war
20’s were a crazy decade
The world’s gone mad,
And what’s this music
Consumerism runs rampant
Harding you lied to us
You said it’d be normal
Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover What am I doing
M.J. Meehan, Livermoor
Stockbrokers get more and more
Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky
Adolf Hitler’s not a fallin’
Permanent prosperity
America lacks clarity
Investor anxiety
There is no Propriety
Oc-tober 29th
WE ARE ALL F’D
Beneath the Glamour: The 1920’s
The era that started it all: the clash of cultures that still exists in America today
Introduction
The 1920’s was a time of dynamic change for the American people, after WWI, and the boys came home there was a overhanging grief of what society was coming to. It was a common belief that society would continue to progress forward but WWI changed that forever. In order to escape the horror of the past there was jazz music, beers, dancing, and entertainment which lead to relaxed social norms and a culture focused on materialism. There were those who supported this lifestyle but there were others who did not and this lead to a conflict of values in America which has never been resolved.
Aftermath of WWI
As stated in the introduction, WWI caused a movement by youth and the nation to move away from issues and attempt to escape from the horror of the war. In the domestic sphere, there was a change towards a return to the "good old days" and less focus on reform. In regards to foriegn relations there was a belief of focusing inwards not outwards. Progressvism was offically over.
People
Woodrow Wilson
Terms
Escapeism
Isolationism
'Lost Generation"
Events
WWI
Social Changes
the 1920’s, the urban environment of the
city brought new changes to American society in
regards to values. However there was a major backlash against these new changes and there was an
attempt to turn back the clock by some groups to the
good old days.
Differences between the Old and New
Old Culture
New Culture
Both sides through legislation, trials, and culture tried to win over the American public. Provided below is a main list of people, events, and terms needed to know to understand this cultural conflict. Main point of understanding was that the old culture was a reactionary movement to the excesses of the new culture with the revival of the KKK, religious fundamentalism, new role of women in society, Prohibition, and the reaction against immigrants like in the Sacco and Vanzetti case.
Movie on Prohibition
People
KKK
Marcus Gravy
Al Capone
“Lost Generation”
Frank Lloyd Wright
F. Scott Fitzgerald
William Bryan Jennings
Clarence Darrow
Charles Lindbergh
WCTU
UNIA
Sinclair Lewis
Terms
Flappers
Sex of Clock
Speakeasies
“Jazz Age”
Fundamentalist
Consumer culture
xenophobia
Events
Harlem Renaissance
Scopes Monkey Trial
Prohibition
Sacco and Vanzetti Case
“The Great Migration”
Economy
Stock Market 1929 Stock Crash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Foriegn Policy
After WWI, there was a great concern for Americans that America may be again involved in some far off war. As a result, the League of Nations never was joined by the US and it failed in the end. Isolationism became the general foreign policy, except in Latin America where American investment almost doubled and relations improved in that region. In Nicaragua a revolution erupted and the Marines were sent in 1925 with the Somoza family were placed in charge. Though America remained out of foreign conflict it initiated a treaty to stop all further wars and limited naval ships. There was much optimism and faith in the future and the agreements/conferences America initiated were reflective of that.
People
Charles G. Dawes
Charles Evan Hughes
Terms
Reparations
Open Door
Events
21 Demands
Dawes Plan
London Naval Conference
Washington Disarment Conference
Five Power Treaty
Nine Power Treaty
Four Power Pact
Kellog-Briand Pact
Roger Act of 1924
Locarno Pact
Politics
During the 1920’s, there was an attempt to revert back to the “good old days” in the political as well social sphere. Americans had grown weary of two decades of reform and attempts to pass moral legislation. Instead of reform there was search for prosperity in politics, and with that in mind three Republicans were elected. As seen in the Glided Age, there was a close relationship between the federal government and big business. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, believed that that business needed support and benefits, which can be seen below;
Four Major Ways Federal Government Supported Business
1. High Tariff Policies- The Fordney-McCumber Act (1922) and the Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) created the highest-ever schedule of tariffs for foreign-made goods.
2. Andrew Mellon- Secretary of the Treasury. In response to his demands, Congress repealed the excess profits tax and reduced the rates for corporate and personal income taxes. Mellon provided business leaders with a list of tax loopholes.
3. Cutbacks in Federal Trade Commission- The federal government had created the FTC to regulate big business and to look into unfair trade practices, but the commission did less and less of this in the 1920s.
4. Herbert Hoover- As Secretary of Commerce and as President, Hoover encouraged price-fixing and believed that the government was responsible for helping businesses profit.
(Specific facts came from http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture15.html)
Calvin Coolidge “Fishing”
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/photos/html/1106.html
Copyright 1997 Wisconsin Historical Society
Along with there being a focus on big business in politics there was an urgency to “return to normalcy” as said by Harding and there was an attempt through legislation to turn back the clock.
What does normalcy mean?
1. Fewer foreigners-immigration restrictions
2. No radical ideologies-attack on communism
3. Return to American Values-prohibition
4. Free of labor and racial strife-less support of unions and civil rights.
5. Less government interference-there was less interference.
People
Warren G. Harding
Charles Evan Hughes
Herbert Hoover
Albert B. Fall
Calvin Coolidge
Alfred E. Smith
Robert LaFollette
A. Mitchell Palmer
Andrew Mellon
1924, Cartoon depicting the power “big business’
has over consumers and producers due to
government
Terms
“Return to normalcy”
Events
18th Amendment
Volstead Act
Emergency Quota Act
National Origins Act of 1924
Teapot Dome Scandal
19th amendment
Federal Farm Board
Red Scare
Popular Culture
The 1920’s popular culture grew out of the rapid developments in technology and also the social changes that were occurring. Movies, music, and the radio helped Americans escape from depression after WWI In addition, it was the first time there was a focus on youth instead of older generations. With new technology and social changes, popular culture really took off with silly fads, cool music, short skirts, fast cars, celebrities, sports heroes, the Charleston, Walt Disney, and of course Felix the cat! One must remember however, that these values promoted in popular culture were not accepted by all of American society. The 1920’s showed really two sides competing for cultural dominance, and based off what came apart of popular culture who do you think won?
Fashion
The 1920’s was perhaps the most memorable for the flapper look of short hair, lots of makeup (in those days) short dresses, big beads, little hats, and boas. As Mr. Randolph said in class, “the higher the hem, the better the economy,” and as seen through the 1920’s the dresses started long and then shortened. The flapper dress was reflective of a women’s freedom and of women’s changing role in society. There were also other changes in fashion as well; formal dresses became low-cut and backless along with the entrance of Coco Chanel onto the fashion scene.
(http://www.case.edu/artsci/womn/pinup/nude_flapper_2/flapper_1/flapper_1_full/flapper_1_full.html)
Men also had their own sense of style during the 1920’s; men often emulated their sports heroes by coping their style. Fashions of coats, such as the raccoon coat and camel hair polo coat came in style from the Red Grange and the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, World famous aviator Charles Lindbergh inspired a craze of leather driving jackets as well. Majority of men’s wardrobe became more youthful collegiate in appearance.
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/men.html
Sports
Sports, gained popularity in the 1920’s with the formation of teams for youth in high school and college. Tennis and golf became open to the middle class for the first time ever. Football and baseball remained the two main sports with such sports heroes as Babe Ruth and the Red Grange.
Cartoons
The 1920’s saw the invasion of animated shorts hit the big screen. Felix the Cat, (picture on right) was one of the first animated characters to capture the attention of the American public. These cartoons were mostly silent until Steamboat Willy, the first cartoon with sound and the first to feature Mickey Mouse and Co.
http://www.everwonder.com/david/felixthecat/
Walt Disney was also the first to franchise goods based off a cartoon character.
Bonus Fact: The story of Felix the Cat was parodied on The Simpsons
Fads
The 1920’s was truly infected with the disease of fads. Dance marathons, contests of all kinds caught the imagination of the American public. Here was the start of the Miss America Contest, in 1920 at the New Jersey shore.
There were many other ridiculous competitions and contests such as what this man is doing.
Flagpole sitting, as shown here was another major fad that rocked the nation.
Complete List of Fads from the 1920’s//
Music and Dance
1920’s was known as the “Jazz Age” for a reason!
Jazz music grew in immense popularity in the country from the “Great Immigration” of African Americans from the South the cities of the North.
However, as the flapper was criticized so were the dances and the music of youth? It was often called
the “Devil’s Music” or garbage.
Famous Musicians and Singers
Louis Armstrong
Duke Ellington
Joseph “King Oliver” Oliver
Bessie Smith
Benny Goodman
Ma Rainey
Dances of the 1920’s
Charleston
Cake Walk
Turkey Trot
Black Bottom
Bunny Hug
Movies
1920’s was really the start of the movie industry, a majority of the films made were silent but advancements were made with the The Jazz Singer, was the first film with sound. With Americans flocking to the cinema, actors became better know and started the fascination with celebrities that continues today. However, there were negative aspects of film with the Birth of A Nation proving how film as a medium can be used as a form of propaganda.
Major Movie Stars
Al Jolsen
Charlie Chaplin
Lon Chaney, Sr
Rudolph Valentino
Clara Bow
Douglass Fairbanks
Mary Pickford
Greta Garbo
Norma Shearer
Joan Crawford
Major Movies
The Jazz Singer
Birth of a Nation
The Kid
Ben Hur
The Phantom of the Opera
The Mask of Zorro
Robin Hood
Taming of the Shrew
Legacy of the 1920’s
1920’s most famously had a direct impact upon 1930’s with the Stock Crash of 1929, causing “The Great Depression” which would take till WWII to be officially rid of. The 1920’s left us more than that; it started a clash of cultures that is truly present in our society. Look in our society and you will have a clash of red and blue states; red and blue states have a certain conations. Red state people are country bumpkins who shop at Wal-Mart while Blue state people cannot live with their Starbucks. The more things change the more they stay the same, for it was the same conflict that was started in the 1920’s that continues today in a different form.
Critical Questions
What were the main conflcits in the 1920's?
Why was there a desire to retain American Values?
What effect did Prohibition have on Culture?
How did a women's role change in the 1920's?
What was the orginal name of Mickey Mouse? (Mortimor)
Links
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/
http://www.kidsnewsroom.org/elmer/infoCentral/frameset/decade/1920.htm
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/il/state/alhn1920.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005846/The_1920/the1920.htm
http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/clash/
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture15.html
http://www.btinternet.com/~dreklind/Jazzhome.htm
http://local.aaca.org/bntc/slang/slang.htm
http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro.html
http://www.crazyfads.com/20s.htm
All pictures, unless noted, are from, 1920’s: Sports, Professionalism, and Young Plan.
SONG-Return to Normalcy?
Roaring Twenties Watch out
Herbert Hoover’s lost his clout
Prohibition, Speak Easy,
Charleston, lemon squeezie
Gangsters, Al Capone
Bugs Moran, watch your own
League of Nations, shut down
Shoeless Joe, What a clown
Anarchists, everywhere,
Vanzetti and the Red Scare
Women’s Rights- Suffrage Passed
Lindberg I’m aghast
Race riots, Tulsa
Communist Party of China
Steamboat Willie shout out
Too many dead in Gansu!
20’s were a crazy decade
The world’s gone mad,
What’s this music?
Consumerism runs rampant
Harding you lied to us
You said it’d be normal
Harlem renaissance, Jazz age
Tolstoy writes a page
Kellog-Brian Pact is signed
Mussolini is here
Evolution, what is that
John Scopes, you’re a brat
King Tut, Babe Ruth
Black Sox Tell the Truth
KKK is popular
Make way for the skyscraper
Blue Sky’s are everywhere
Telephone, Hello There
Stock Brokers rule the nation
Children get an Education
Two plus two is four
Men coming home from war
20’s were a crazy decade
The world’s gone mad,
And what’s this music
Consumerism runs rampant
Harding you lied to us
You said it’d be normal
Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge,
Herbert Hoover What am I doing
M.J. Meehan, Livermoor
Stockbrokers get more and more
Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky
Adolf Hitler’s not a fallin’
Permanent prosperity
America lacks clarity
Investor anxiety
There is no Propriety
Oc-tober 29th
WE ARE ALL F’D